Kanatsu Koizumi
Kanatsu Koizumi ''(鉱泉花夏 Koizumi Kanatsu), nicknamed Natsu (ナツ) is a second-year student at U.A. High School training to become a Pro Hero. Appearance Natsu is a pale girl with long, dusky pink hair and red eyes. When training or fighting, she puts her hair up in a ponytail. Her hero costume consists of a sleeveless white crop top with small golden pauldrons and a long flowing white skirt with a slit down the left leg. She also wears black shorts under her skirt and a white scarf held together with gold clips draped loosely over her shoulders. The costume originally included brown laced sandals, but these were later discarded and replaced with a pair of brown wristbands. Personality Natsu is a quiet, bookish girl. Despite her outwardly stoic demeanor, she's actually very kind and friendly. She's seen as "cool" by her fellow classmates. She is able to remain calm and focused regardless of the situation and is a capable strategist for this reason. Natsu has a habit of taking off her shoes - and if possible, her socks as well - to help her think. History The neighborhood Natsu grew up in was once a very dangerous area. When Natsu was just starting middle school, a Hero Team opened up an office a few blocks away from her house. Within a few months, they were able to drastically reduce local crime and turn the neighborhood into a much better place to live. This is what inspired Natsu to enroll in U.A. to one day become a Pro Hero herself. On her first day of high school at U.A., Natsu met Mafuyu Rin outside the school gates and helped her get over her nervousness. Once inside the school, they discovered they were in the same class and then met Koharu Midorinawa. Over the next year, they all bonded and helped Yu improve her Japanese considerably. In exchange, Yu was also able to teach Natsu and Haru a little Mandarin. Though Haru began spending less time with the group when she started interning with Ever-Sense and Natsu ended up in a separate class from the other two for their second year, the three of them remained close friends. Plot Quirk and Abilities '''Enhanced Durability: '''Natsu uses a variety of materials to activate her Quirk. Her preferred bases for transformation seem to be different types of stone and then later metal, all sturdy materials that provide increased offense and defense. Quirk '''Self-Petrification:' Natsu's Quirk gives her the ability to transmute her body into whatever substance she touches. She most commonly transforms her forearms to block and enhance the strength of her punches, but has also been shown using her Quirk to transform her entire body completely as well. However, while fully transformed, she can't see, hear, breathe, or even move. Her cognitive functions are still preserved, though, and she can feel the force of attacks hitting her. Super Moves * Jade Gauntlets: '''A combination attack performed with Mafuyu Rin. Natsu first transforms her arms into jade. Then, Yu collects multiple pieces of jade around Natsu using her Jade Quirk, increasing the size and striking power of her fists. Later versions of this technique add spiked knuckles for even more offensive power. * '''Jade Stompers: A variation on Jade Gauntlets using Natsu's feet instead of her hands to enhance her kicks. Equipment No Footwear: While not technically "equipment" - in fact, it's the complete opposite - this is an important design choice in Natsu's costume. Exposing her bare feet to the ground helps her transform faster since she's always in contact with suitable material. Even after she adds metal-lined wristbands to her costume, she still foregoes wearing shoes out of preference. 'Wristbands: '''The wristbands Natsu later adds to her costume have thin metal strips lining the inside. Since the metal has constant contact with her skin, she has easy access to material for transforming. Relationships Mafuyu Rin Natsu was one of the first friends Yu made when she moved to Japan and started school. The two of them are very close, often being seen hanging out together in and out of school. They pair up in training exercises whenever they can as well and have developed a number of combination moves using their Quirks. Koharu Midorinawa They became friends during their first year at U.A. High, but saw each other less and less outside of school when Haku started her internship and was constantly out doing hero work. The two of them are still relatively close friends, however. Older Brothers Natsu's older twin half-brothers from her father's previous marriage. They adore and constantly dote on Natsu, calling her their "baby sister" despite only being four years older. Both are studying abroad in Canada and constantly send Natsu a lot of strange gifts. Trivia * Her given name has the kanji 花 ("ka"), meaning "flower". When written without the grass radical on top, this becomes 化 (also pronounced "ka"), which means "change" or "to take the form of". ** Like the rest of her friends, Natsu's name contains the word for one of the four seasons. In Natsu's case, this is "summer" ''(夏 natsu). * The Japanese surname "Koizumi" is normally written with different kanji (小泉 or 古泉). Kanatsu's surname instead starts with the kanji 鉱 ("ko"), meaning "mineral" or "ore". Concept/Creation Trivia * Kanatsu's name took forever to come up with because I had a hard time matching her Quirk to something that sounded good. I really like what I ended up with, mostly because of the wordplay with the kanji in her first name. * She was originally going to have a very different role in the story, but after developing her abilities more her character ended up diverging significantly from what I'd planned. Because of this, her role was altered.